Wired
12/01/2015
Drug Prices Are Too Damn High. Here's How To Fix Them
The pharmaceutical industry claims that regulations are complicated, biology more so, R&D is expensive, and prices must cover the cost. However, the magnitude of rising drug prices does not justify the hikes.
In 1990, scientists in Italy published a study comparing the efficacy of two heart medications.
The scientists compared the efficacy by looking at more than 12,400 cases, and came to the conclusion that the newer and more expensive drug provided no significant improvement. It kickstarted the conversation about rising drug prices. Today, many drugs cost more than $30,000, and in the past 50 years the prices of cancer drugs have increased a hundredfold. Earlier this year, Martin Shkreli's company, Turing pharmaceuticals, increased the price of a recently acquired drug from $13.50 to $750 a pill. Yet Shkreli wasn't breaking any laws. The article in Wired describes the drug pricing issue and offers several solutions.
Read the full article here.
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